


Light

by tatooedlaura



Series: Life [29]
Category: The X-Files
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 10:16:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8975518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatooedlaura/pseuds/tatooedlaura
Summary: Fifteen seconds late, Mulder. Your time is not improving.





	

“What did he say?”

He heard her sniff once, dropping his heart into his stomach, then, “I’m fine. The MRI was clean and the bloodwork only showed an iron deficiency, which I can take care of with vitamins. So, in other words, I am perfectly fine.”

Mulder collapsed against her back, his arms pulling her close, head sideways so his cheek pressed into her shoulder blade, “I have never been so scared of a phone call in my entire life.”

She didn’t know what to do with her relief, the week’s sheer tonnage of worry now lifted, her body warm, her need to giggle bursting forth, “I’m okay. Oh, my God, Mulder, I’m okay. I am sitting on a chair on a balcony in California on vacation and I’m,” turning sideways so she could hug him, “holy mother of shit, I’m okay.”

Now he joined the laughing, “holy mother of shit? Did you learn that from one of your nuns?”

Arms tightly around his neck, she crushed him to her for a few more moments, then pulled back, eyes shining, “I’m starving. Come on. We’re gonna go find us the best damn dinner we’ve ever had.”

“I think I could eat sawdust and be completely happy about it.”

Pecking first his cheek then his lips with her own, she stood up, “I’m going to go take a fast shower. Back in five.”

He leaned just a little forward and watched her walk into the room, her retreating figure hypnotizing him, his mind recording that walk … that slight sway in her hips, the smoothly sliding muscles of her back, the nearly imperceptible bounce in her step …

It was the happiest walk he’d ever seen her do and it made his heart swell.

&&&&&&&&&&&&

“So, Scully, where do you want to eat? More steak? Seafood? Italian?”

She’d been ready and raring to go out before her shower, but now, she looked down at her towel wrapped body, the steam clouding up the room, her hair dripping down her chest and she called out the door, “would you care if maybe we just ate here tonight?”

He whipped open the door, the steam hitting him, the cooler air of the room making it even cloudier and obscuring his vision completely. When he could see her a few seconds later, “damn it. You have a towel on.”

“Fifteen seconds late, Mulder. Your time is not improving.”

Resting himself against the doorjamb, he grinned, “I’ll try to do better. So, what did you say to food tonight? I heard something but was too enthralled by the possibility of seeing skin that I didn’t really understand.”

“I wondered if you would mind if we ate here? I was ready to go out and then I realized I’m tired and sunburned and could really go for pizza and salad and several bottles of wine.”

“That is the best thing I’ve heard in the last ten minutes.” Running a hand through his crunchy hair, “I nearly fell asleep sitting out here waiting for you to finish up.”

Palming his elbow as she moved past him, “shower away. We’ll go together for pizza and liquor when you’re done.” And just to mess with his head, she pulled off her towel and tossed it into the bathroom just as she disappeared around the corner, the towel hitting first his face, then the floor, “hurry up.”

&&&&&&&&&&&

The pizza was phenomenal, the salad crisp, the breadsticks cheesy, the first bottle of wine fruity, the second bottle dry and the third red and heavy, the weight of it making Scully’s eyes unfocused and Mulder’s actions loose. By two am, long after the pair should have been snoring comfortably under the covers, they were instead on top of them, Scully on her stomach, head at the end of the bed and feet on the pillow. Mulder was sitting on his own pillow, rolling the second cork against the sole of Scully’s bare foot, “your feet are going to smell like wine.”

“They’ve smelled worse. Remember the poo incident of … whenever the hell that was. I had to throw out my shoes and my feet smelled funny for a week.”

He lifted her foot until it was level with his nose, “smells more like soap than poo or wine.”

“Smell familiar?”

Another long sniff later, “that’s my soap. How come you used my soap?”

“It was in the shower already.” Wiggling her toes, “do you mind me using your soap?”

“There is no earthly way I’d ever mind you using my soap. We’ve said soap a lot in the last minute or so and it’s starting to sound like the dumbest word on the planet … soap … soap … soooooap … so-oap … sssoooaapp …. It really should be spelled ‘sope’ ‘cause then …”

He trailed off and it took another five second before Scully began wondering if he fell asleep and looking over her shoulder towards him, she saw his eyes focused on her ass, “Mulder?”

Meeting her twinkling gaze after another second, “sorry, I was staring at your butt.” Her laughter just made her bum jiggle slightly and instantly, his eyes flew back to it, “I don’t mean to but sometimes, I just have to, you know?” Scully was dying, attempting to control herself but failing miserably, her snorting laughter bringing him back to present day, “what did I just say? Did I just tell you I stare at your butt sometimes?”

Scully tried to turn on her back but the room was spinning from both the alcohol and the lack of oxygen the last minute and she gave up after only a second, “yes. You told me sometimes you just have to.”

How the hell was he still awake? His balance was shot to shit and three bottles of wine should have knocked him flat but he was still managing to construct sentences, or what he assumed were sentences. He’d been losing interest in his own conversation partway in so he wasn’t sure how they sounded to Scully but given she was laughing, he must be doing okay.

Oh yeah, he had to watch her ass.

“Mulder? Mulder!”

His head weighed approximately 37.8 pounds at the moment and the difficulty of lifting it up made it fall right back down to its previous spot in the universe.

Oh yeah, he had to watch her ass.

“Mulder?”

Looking up again with utmost exertion, “yeah?”

“You’re still looking at my ass.”

The bed swayed dangerously as he clumsily attempted to get to her side … or maybe he swayed dangerously … he wasn’t sure at this point. Finally, after a good hour it seemed, he dropped down beside her, “what?”

His face was now beside hers, their noses touching, her warm breath drifting over his cheeks as she whispered to him, “are you okay?”

“You’re pretty. You have freckles. I love freckles. I love your freckles. I’m sorry I didn’t come down here and visit you earlier but I was busy looking at your ass.”

Knowing he wouldn’t remember anything in the morning and knowing that she probably wouldn’t either, she kissed his forehead, then his right eyelid, then his nose, followed by right cheekbone then chin. Pulling back, she gave him a wobbling, shnockered out of her mind smile, “I’m going to be okay.”

Mulder recalled that one shining fact from an otherwise wine-soaked blur of a day and with the smallest amount of nose-bumping, he kissed her, tasting the tang of alcohol and the spiciness of tomato sauce and the one thing that Mulder always knew she’d taste like.

Perfection.

Attempting to move his head closer, get a better angle, he couldn’t manage it, especially when he realized that Scully was so totally asleep that her mouth was slack-open and there was already some drool on the corner of her lips.

He followed her to dreamland with his hand under her shirt, on her lower back, where she kept her tattoo and he kept his sanity.


End file.
